Month: April 2016

I’ve been in a reading slump since the beginning of the year. I know, it’s been almost five months. But in my defense, I’ve read more books in the past year, books that I’ve wanted to read for my own pleasure, than I read in the four years before that. It’s almost like I went into book overload.

It may have also been because I’d just finished the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by the amazing Laini Taylor, and I just didn’t know what to do with myself anymore. Really, that was the last book I read. I finished it on January 1st.

Anyway! Moving on!

I just finished, no more than fifteen minutes ago, Before He Finds Her by Michael Kardos. He’s a codirector for Mississippi State University’s Creative Writing program. And I really wish that I’d gotten he chance to take one of his classes. I wished that before, but now, I’m seriously regretting missing out on that.

(Disclaimer: It’s been a while since I did a book report like this. Please forgive anything that sounds stupid or confusing. I will get better. Eventually.)

Before He Finds Her follows the life of Melanie Denison. After finding out she’s pregnant, Melanie decides to finally take her life into her own hands. She’s going to find her murderous father, so that she can live without looking over her shoulder.

I started this book in March, but then I stopped because it wasn’t holding my attention. Slumps, y’all. Slumps. However, when I picked up the book again on Tuesday of this week, I was immediately sucked back in-with no need to re-read what I’d already read (See? Stupid and/or confusing!). It’s now just before closing on Thursday. I can read pretty fast when I put my mind to it. (I’m currently resisting the urge to put emoji’s in here.)

Before He Finds Her gets a 4 out or 5 stars on my Goodreads page. It really was a fantastic read. It was a little confusing at the start, though. It switches back and forth between “present day” (2006) and the year the murder happened (1991). It also switches between third-person narrators–Ramsey Miller, leading up to the murder of Allison Miller; and Melanie Denison, a.k.a. Meg Miller, as she hunts for the truth. It was easier to keep track of once I got further into the book, since it would have longer stretches of writing before switching. There’s a good amount of cursing, which I am no stranger to, but I wouldn’t let younger kids read this. I’m not sure I’d let my mother read this either.

Either way, Before He Finds Her is definitely going on my Read Again list. If I read it again, I may bump the rating up to 4.5 out of 5, but the narration gives me a hesitation on a full 5 stars. Considering I went into this book knowing nothing other than the name of the author and a saleswoman saying, “That’s a good book!”, I think I did pretty well.

Last week, this upcoming week, and the week after are making me crazy.

I’m an introvert. I don’t know if I’ve already told you that, but I am. Completely. So it’s really fitting that I have a job where I have to interact with people all the time. I manage, though, because it’s my job. It’s what I’m paid to do. But every time that stupid phone rings, after I have a mini-heart attack because the ringer’s so loud, I have a very serious debate on answering it. Four rings and then voicemail kicks in.

I’ve used that voicemail a lot over the last week. Most of it’s because I really can’t get to the phone–I’m dealing with someone or something, and I can’t stop. There are three-week sessions of what I call “Super-Court.” There’s court continually, for those three weeks, and while I’m not there the whole time and neither is my Lawyer-Boss, it means that I’m having to deal with clients wondering when, where, what time, etc. Some questions I can answer–most I can’t.

And I hate that.

If you’re going to ask me a question, I like to be able to give you the answer, or at least the answer that I think is right. I can’t do that when I don’t have all the information.

So, between phone calls, irritable people that really need attitude adjustments, and court, I haven’t done much of anything.

I did manage to get 9 scenes transferred from my notebook to Scrivener–a total of 6,454 words. That’s not too shabby, but it could definitely be better. I also started plotting a new story. I’m going to be working on two at once–one sci-fi, one fantasy. We’ll have to see how that goes. I’m about to finish up with that in my notebook and try to get that on my computer before the night’s out. Wish me luck!

That word, up there. I am the queen of that word. I have procrastinated in every way I can think of. I’m also like a lot of other people in that I will put off doing something, even if it’s something I want to do. YouTube and Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat…anything to keep me from doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

I hate myself when I do it, and I’m usually telling myself off (in my head) for not doing what I’m supposed to.

So, I’ve only added two scenes to what I have on my computer. That brings the word count up to 4,500. I’ve only finished one scene in my notebook, but I’m almost through with another, so I don’t feel that bad about it. I was stuck for a bit. I couldn’t figure out how a fight was supposed to go down. Then I watched a few videos by Katytastic and Jenna Moreci (spelled exactly like that, find them on YouTube) and just decided, “What the hell! Just put some words down and get a move on!” And that is how my scene that will eventually reach 1,000 words (probably, hopefully) ended up barely hitting 500. But, hey! I finished it!

Right now, I’m just writing down what I can get. The bones, if you will. Once I get the basic skeleton down in my notebook and get it all moved over to my laptop, I’m going to start adding the meat into it. I am also going to rename a few characters. I don’t know what yet, so I’m sticking with the names I’ve got now and when I start to type on it, I’m just going to do a massive find and replace for all the names. Maybe I’ll have the names I want by that time. But (if you’ll please look up at the at the title of this post) I probably won’t.

Okay, now I need to quit procrastinating here and get to work! Good luck to everyone that’s trying to work on their own projects, but are fighting the procrastination demons. Let me know how it goes!